To you, my beloved Grandchildren, I dedicate this collection of translations from Petrarch, made at different and distant periods of my life, and which I have been led, by persons I could not suppose influenced by partiality, to hope might possess some merit.

I first translated for my amusement, when I was young, the two Canzoni, "Di pensier in pensier, di monte in monte," and "Nella stagion, che 'l ciel rapido inchina."

Mr. Mathias, at that time, perhaps, the highest authority this country could boast in Italian literature, saw these attempts, was most flattering in his opinion of them, and even insisted on printing a few copies of them privately. To him I then addressed the Dedicatory Sonnet which is now prefixed to the collection. He afterwards reprinted them at Rome.

Many years had elapsed from that time when I became acquainted with the celebrated Ugo Foscolo. He also approved of my translations, and did me the honour to wish for all I then had by me, for his beautiful and learned Essays on the life and writings of Petrarch, in which work they are to be found. The book was already in the press when he insisted on my rendering into English the two remarkable Canzoni, "Chiare, fresche e dolci acque," and "Italia mia, benchè 'l parlar sia indarno." He designated the first as a melody, the second as an oration; and surely no poet, and few musicians, can have composed a richer melody than the one, nor perhaps any orator a more spirit‐stirring oration than the other. I have endeavoured to keep in mind Foscolo's definition. My version was finished in time to be placed in the appendix to his work.

I have, of late years, been so fortunate as to make the acquaintance of Mr. Panizzi, of the British Museum, and to obtain also his approbation of these English versions of his great national poet. It is by his advice, and that of other very high authorities, that I now make this collection of my attempts, adding, thus late in life, a few more Sonnets and Canzoni, with the remarkable passage containing a description of Laura's death‐bed, in the "Trionfo della Morte: and thus giving specimens of all the Poet's different styles of composition in what was then called the lingua volgare. As you will ere long, my dear grandchildren, be grown up critics, and, my partial hopes tell me, discriminating and just ones, I amdesirous you should be aware of the difficulties I have had to contend with. These have been considerably, and, perhaps, unnecessarily increased by the shackles I imposed on myself in adhering so strictly to the form of my original; generally giving line for line, as literally as possible, without being absolutely Hamiltonian. If you should be very severe critics, you may perhaps point out some passages in which I have relaxed from this strictness, but I think you will find they are, either such as would be inadmissible amongst us in this refined and, even, fastidious age, (in which case I have substituted a less startling image of the same character,) or of a nature to which our language could not impart the grace they possess in Italian; such as in the "Chiare, fresche e dolci acque," Asciugandosi gli occhi col bel velo: "Drying her eyes with her veil" is not to us a pleasing image, neither does the beauty of the veil add to the beauty of the picture; I have, therefore, simply described her as in tears, and given, I hope, the poet's thought, that those tears were called forth by relenting feelings towards him on seeing his grave; transferring the beauty ascribed to the veil to Laura's own person. In the Sonnet, "Gli occhi, di ch' io parlai sì caldamente," I found I could not venture to specify hands and feet; and in "Quando Amor i begli occhi a terra inchina," as I felt the poet's fancy had betrayed him into being almost fantastical, I took the liberty of adding the apologetical expression "dreamy blessedness." In others, as in the Canzone "Gentil mia donna, i' veggio," I had peculiar difficulties to encounter. The concetti it contains belong so exclusively to the age in which Petrarch wrote, and the whole spirit of the poem is so essentially Italian, that I should never have attempted to naturalize it, had not Mr. Panizzi urged the expediency of giving at least one of the three Canzoni, which have for five hundred years been esteemed by Italian critics capi lavoro of their great poet, and distinguished by the title of "le tre sorelle." One of the concetti, I allude to, occurs in the fifth line of the first stanza, "Dentro là dove sol con Amor seggio;" which I have endeavoured to qualify in some measure, by placing only Amore, not Petrarch in person, in Laura's eyes.

The Canzone, "Quando il soave mio fido conforto," appeared to me written in the spirit of a person giving a faithful and simple account of his dream. I therefore endeavoured to catch the matter‐of‐fact, circumstantial tone of the narrative; as in the "Chiare, fresche e dolci acque," I sought, as far as our less melodious language might allow, to give an idea of the exquisite graces and richness of diction displayed in the original. I have also sought for variety in my selection of the Sonnets; and you will find some of the Poet's earlier and more impassioned effusions, some of a more pathetic character after Laura's death, and some expressive of pious contrition, as in the two sublime prayers, "Padre del Ciel," and "I' vo piangendo." I have prefaced the whole by Petrarch's own introductory and deprecatory Sonnet written late in life.

The most difficult task of all has been the fragment from the "Trionfo della Morte," where, to one bent on observing the form of the original, the terza rima presents almost insuperable obstacles, both from the paucity of rhyme in our language, and the little liberty we enjoy in this free country of altering our words to serve our purpose, while the oppressed Italians carry their freedom, in that instance, almost to license. The form of the terza rima is also so exclusively Ita‐ lian, so unfavourable to ease and flow of diction in our monosyllabic tongue, that I had almost given up the task in despair. This has been my last attempt.

I have added to the collection some stanzas suggested by Petrarch's "Amor se vuoi," which appeared to me too long and diffuse for translation, and also some English versions made at Mr. Panizzi's request of passages in Pulci, Bernardo Tasso, and Fortiguerra, which are to be found in the learned, spirited, and highly entertaining essay which prefaces his edition of Boiardo and Ariosto.

That this little volume may have some value in your eyes, my dear Grandchildren, when you shall have, in the natural course of events, lost your old playfellow, (a title I shall prefer to any other you can give me, while I may yet be permitted to enjoy it), is the last wish of the expiring literary ambition of your very affectionate